This application is a Continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/509,888 filed on Jul. 27, 2009 which claims priority to Japanese Patent Application No. 2008-194037, filed Jul. 28, 2008 which are expressly incorporated herein by reference.
1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a liquid-ejecting head which is capable of ejecting a liquid from a nozzle opening. More particularly, the present invention relates to a liquid-ejecting head, a liquid-ejecting apparatus, and a piezoelectric transducer including a first electrode, a piezoelectric layer, and a second electrode.
2. Related Art
Piezoelectric transducers for use in liquid-ejecting heads typically include two electrodes and a piezoelectric layer disposed between the two electrodes. The piezoelectric layer is generally made of a piezoelectric material having an electromechanical transducing function or a crystalline dielectric material. The piezoelectric transducers are used as actuators which operate in a flexural vibration mode and are mounted in liquid-ejecting heads. Typical examples of the liquid-ejecting heads which use such transducers are ink-jet recording heads which include diaphragms which form portions of pressure-generating chambers which are communicatively connected to nozzle openings. The diaphragms are distorted with piezoelectric transducers so that ink contained in the pressure-generating chambers is pressurized, causing droplets of ink to be ejected from the nozzle openings.
For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-127366 describes an example of a piezoelectric transducer for use in an ink-jet recording heads. The piezoelectric transducers are formed so as to independently correspond to pressure-generating chambers in such a manner that a single piezoelectric material layer is formed over a surface of a diaphragm by a deposition process and then divided using a lithography process into sections having a shape corresponding to that of the individual pressure-generating chambers.
One problem with the piezoelectric transducers currently known in the art, however is that the piezoelectric transducers often peel off and/or crack during operation. This problem is worsened as the amount of power supplied to the device is reduced, creating increasing demands for liquid-ejecting heads that can eject heavy ink droplets with low driving voltage.
The problem is common not only in ink-jet recording heads and piezoelectric transducers for use in liquid-ejecting heads but also in liquid-ejecting heads which eject liquids other than ink and piezoelectric transducers for use in other devices.